.......... At Brands Hatch
Teenage motor racing star Will Bratt was delighted to be back where he belongs at Brands Hatch Indy Circuit today – behind the wheel of his Formula Renault UK car for official testing ahead of this weekend’s fifth and sixth rounds of the season.After an incredible day as an exclusive guest of the Formula One World Championship-leading Renault F1 Team at Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit yesterday (Wednesday), it was a case of back to business for the youngster this morning as he gained useful testing mileage ahead of the weekend.After a five-week break in the 2005 calendar, the country’s most popular single-seater series resumes at the 1.22 mile Kent venue on Saturday and Adderbury racer Will is hoping to seal the first top 10 finish of his maiden year of ‘slicks and wings’ action.Driving for Loughborough’s Scorpio Motorsport, the 17-year old ended up 16th overall on the timesheets during today’s four-hour test and second fastest of the B4 Group Graduate Cup class runners. Will’s best lap of 45.070 seconds (97.94mph) was just seven 10ths of a second slower than the outright pacesetter, Manor Motorsport’s Irish driver Patrick Hogan.With only a single second covering 24 of the 26 drivers taking part in the session, the weekend’s races promise to be hard fought and with overtaking highly difficult for the aerodynamically efficient Formula Renault UK cars on the short and twisty Brands Hatch Indy Circuit, an impressive qualifying display for Will on Saturday will be of the utmost importance.Commenting on the test, Will said: “We put new tyres on for the last half an hour but unfortunately got boxed in on every single run and so couldn’t get a clear flying lap. I had to abort three really good laps and this obviously meant the difference from being around the top 10 and 16th position where we ended up.“We’re pretty happy though overall. Our target is to reach the top 10 in qualifying and then try and maintain the same kind of pace in the weekend’s two races. If things go our way I’m confident we can achieve that aim.”Quickest of the Graduate Cup drivers was championship newcomer Richard Keen, who managed a best time six 100ths of a second faster than Will. The Team Firstair driver made his official Formula Renault UK debut today, having defected to the category from the rival Formula BMW UK Championship.The 20-minute qualifying session for round five of the 2005 Formula Renault UK Championship with Michelin takes place at 10.50 on Saturday, 4th June, with round six qualifying scheduled to commence at 15.40.Both of the ‘double-header’ races will therefore take place on Sunday, 5th June, with the fifth round set to begin at 10.40 and round six starting at 17.25.
